Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) have found a way to make high-temperature superconducting power
cables that can carry as much current as existing superconducting cables
while being a tenth of the diameter. The thin, flexible cables could
open up new applications in electrical power transmission and could lead
to powerful new magnets.

The cables could provide a lightweight, compact replacement for copper power cables, says NIST researcher Danko van der Laan,
who led the work. Superconducting magnets made with the cables would
generate much higher magnetic fields than are possible today. Such high
fields would be useful for high-energy physics and proton cancer
treatment.